In terms of a brief history – in October 2014, after 10 years of operation, Major League Soccer club Chivas USA ceased operations.
One month later, the league announced a new Los Angeles-based successor would be taking their place.
Now, almost a full year since Los Angeles Football Club announced their intentions as a club (but still three years from taking the field as an actual team), the working-title-named LAFC confirmed they would be taking the name permanently.
“This is our club, and with our voices we will build this club together”
As this opening line of a letter sent to fans who had reserved a season ticket for the inaugural 2018 season shows, the club have decided they will be built hand-in-hand with their supporters.
They have eschewed the customary approach to club construction and are hanging their future on an audience who have been raised in an America where football is ubiquitous: millennials.
We are for the “millennials”
It feels natural to capture this cachet of the LA population.
By their definition, they are those born between the early 1980s and 2000s at a time when football was beginning to make its mark on the sporting landscape.
But today, football’s popularity and participation is growing and reflected most amongst this millennial contingent by the fact they are 16% more interested in football than any other demographic in the US.
But it needs to be noted that the millennial crowd are sophisticated and more socially aware, influential and mindful of the world around us and the one we bequeath to others – they are not going to be fooled by a football club trying to be a brand. So while it makes sense to target them, it needs to be done with authenticity.
“The design aesthetic”
And so, this is how they will capture them, apparently.
An interesting write-up appeared in the LA Times pitching Rich Orosco as the marketing character behind this millennial strategy and looking to build a story for LAFC greater than just football.
This story will centre on a ‘design aesthetic’ which he says involves forging to-be-determined relationships amongst the music, art, and fashion world so that fans can associate with something that is bigger than the game – a tough task for any brand, let alone a football one.
But it is a sound strategy. Brands today need to be invited into culture and they are more likely to be permitted entry if they look like they will positively contribute in some way.
And the club has already made a step in this direction with an initiative they rolled out recently giving fans a voice in the creation of their team colours and identity through Twitter.
It’s official. Our supporters have spoken. We are officially the Los Angeles Football Club. #WeAreLAFC pic.twitter.com/sayZT0SSQL
— LAFC (@LAFC) September 15, 2015
The LAFC Colors campaign top 5. Black, Pink, Gold, Red, and Blue. #BuildTogether #WeAreLAFC pic.twitter.com/kqWZ2P5vAj
— LAFC (@LAFC) September 23, 2015
Football, not soccer
So, Los Angeles has another football club, but not the kind of football club Los Angeles (or America) tend to be used to. Which means there could be something in the semantics.
This is a team which will play in a country who labels the sport ‘soccer’, in a league with ‘soccer’ in its title, yet they have chosen to call themselves a ‘football club’.
But as Jason Davis of The Best Soccer Show said: “Los Angeles isn’t a typical sports town. Soccer isn’t a typical American sport”.
Firstly, LA is an entertainment town where image is everything. It is a city built on perception where how you look is almost as important as what you do.
With the name, they seem to have the former locked down. Now onto the latter, amongst other things.
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